Personligt | romedo - frivolous remarks

Serving the Public recanned spam

So Dansk Folkeparti has indicated that they intend to suggest massively reducing Denmarks Radio, the public radio and television network funded entirely by a license fee. First of all I dislike the license idea, it has become such a broadly defined when you are obligated to pay the license, and as soon as you trigger one of the criteria you are committed for the entire package. That sort of deals usually entails shady Bulgarian coupon salesmen and “clubs” or “subscriptions” that seem to have no identifiable product or ways to terminate your membership.

That links to the second problem, which is reason why I dislike the license idea. Denmarks Radio has gotten to big. They are in Danish Media present on every media platform. There is the classics TV and Radio, but we are talking 6-7 channels of TV and similarly on radiostations, they have a huge website, offering, streaming, live-tv, they have a full size orchestra, choirs,concert-hall even a circus for the kids. “That all sounds very nice” you might say, and it is but is expensive as well. So why have all those channels and outlets, what is the point?

The idea for DR is do Public Service. So in my opinion that means ensuring a good and comprehensive news coverage, and offer shows and content that would not be available if the market is solely run as a business. So I like shows that otherwise would not be made, I do not watch it all, I do not even like it all, but I appreciate the fact that narrow subjects get a place and a voice, someday it might be my field of interest they cover. I even accept that they experiment with expensive drama, to offer good danish speaking and produced drama, when no one else is willing to do it. Even picking up brand new concepts of tv, radio or media content, if no one else is doing it in the Danish market. But as soon as it becomes mainstream, as soon as there is someone in the private sector willing to do it for money, because it now has been proven, valuable, DR should retreat and focus on new topics for what otherwise would not get the chance. No more X-factor, do not make drama or tv to compete with the others.

Last I know the movies and series DR shows are not that expensive, but when you have that many channels you need to fill them, but if what they fill them with is shit, 80 % of the time is not worth it. Yesterday, on the main channel DR1, before 18.30 there was not a single programme that FDposter had not been shown before. Why are they showing an Australian Drama series from the late eighties what is the public service here? Then they had about 3 hours and 40 minutes of “new programming. After which Midsomer Murders took over.

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The idea of the “mandatory” license is only reasonable if you offer them a service that serves the public in a way that would not otherwise be served, due to cost vs. earnings ratios that might be too poor. But is does not warrant a 12-15 hours of recanned spam a day pr. channel. And do not even get me started on the cartoons…I think DR in this case less would be more.

Disclaimer, Flying Doctors & Midsumer Murders pics are not my own, lost my collection of tv poster from the 90’s in the great fire of 2004, so if you own them and want me to take them down, let me know.

A common enemy

I have watched enough SciFy to conclude that there is a basic premise behind most of them. That the emergence of Aliens, that is recognized as Aliens. Not the never seen green ones, that seem to abduct mostly Americans and probe their bodily cavities, but an actual other species. Whether they look like us, in the Vulcans from Star Trek, or are the odd looking ones from Independence Day, or even the obscure shrouded ones from Contact it has to be a clearly recognizable Alien. Across it all there is the premise that the discovery of an outer-worldly presence would somehow unite the people of earth and we would put aside our local struggles. Join in the “Earth race” as just humans and face the others as joint species. What is a slight color difference between ourselves, if the other guy has tentacles and can breathe liquid Helium. And those maintaining a nationalistic attitude in the face of an entire Universe is always considered, the idiots.

So how likely is it that we would react this way. Well, just looking at Syria lately, the existence of a clear and common enemy for all the insurgence groups, has not united them the the point they agree on nothing more than they will shoot at that common enemy, but they maintain a conflict with each other also. The Sanskrit saying of “The Enemy of my Enemy is my friend” does not seem to work….ever. Most likely what will happen is that if an Alien race started to drop by, they would just be one more element in a grand giant conflict stew, where we hate liberally across races (humans), borders religions and now planets and species. We have enough conflict to include Aliens.

In the meantime, I will enjoy the fantasy a little longer, hope is as you know, like Aliens ever green.

Equality and sexism…and stupidity

I read on a blog which will only be referred to as “the blog”. Since I found the latest content so mindnumbingly stupid, I did not find it worthy to mention by name. All the same I was compelled to hit the keys and respond, someone might read it and mistake it for facts.

The Author claims that sexism and sexual assaults are running rampant in the state of Denmark, based solely ,it appears, on the flow of thoughts of the author. The only hard fact that is cited is the EU report where Sweden and Denmark suddenly popped up as the hardcore sexist societies, where testosterone apparently is the only guiding principle, and men do not hold back in grabbing a handfull of boob, if the mood strikes us. But having read the report, I can find several problems in the conclusion that is drawn from the data. I do not deny that some may be victims of sexual assault in Denmark and Sweden also, this is of course deplorable and should be dealt with. But I do think that women in Sweden and Denmark suffer from a misconception, most likely from the many years they have spend labeling themselves as victims in a society, that is already feminized to the point of insanity. Denmark and Sweden are perhaps the most feminine societies in the world, but since no objective data exist on this, this is for now merely my opinion. Anyhow the report states that a third of all danish women have experienced sexual and/or physical violence since they were 15. So either I have been shielded in my life, or… I do know, and have known a number women, family, wife, friends and despite this still is a big taboo, I suspect I would have met a lot in my nearly 40 years if these numbers were valid. But I have ever only heard of couple in my entire life, which would leave us with a number closer to 1-3% instead of 33%. Additionally, who does the beating, I know no one who have displayed, or even indicated that they thought it would be OK. So how does this work, who is getting beat up and who is doing it? Or is the women who answer this study really answering something else. Is there an equal study that indicates how many men have been involved violence, if so sign me up. I got slapped around at a party when I was 16. But does that constitute a general problem, or just the fact that 3 guys were idiots.

I think the debate looses its validity because the argument seems to come from a group that is more than 50% of the population, who has better education, longer avg. lifespan, better health and yet still insist on viewing themselves as victims.
Like the increasing pressure we see to the freedom of speech coming from religious and other groupings whenever their sensibilities are grazed, so do the female agenda feel that any non-preferential treatment of women is inherently sexist. The individualized idea is that if I felt any discomfort at all as a women, it must have sexism. But women and the blogger seem to have forgotten, that equality means no preferential treatment, to either men or women, that does not equal qoutas, designated spots and behavior to cater to women. I once read a mathematician, who said that many people mistakenly thinks random is evenly distributed, but that is wrong. So if sex is not be considered, is also means that 5 men may be chosen over 5 women, without this being anything other than parameters other than sex, picked these 5. That denial of breastfeeding in a restaurant is not sexist, It can be merely be a preference of the owner, like the choice to serveronly fish, or have a mariachi band. Just beacuse you would like to do something, it does not follow that you can do it in a restaurant. Some people like to dress up as an orcs, but you can most likely not get a table at a Michelin restaurant in that outfit. Is that sexist?

24 vs 25

Som alle ved er der 24 timer i et døgn det tager 24 afsnit førend Kiefer Sutherland havde fanget/skudt/tævet skurken. Derfor synes det også naturligt at julemåneden kulminerer den 24. Men…sådan er det jo ikke alle vegne, og i virkeligheden begynder julen jo først den 24. om aftenen, for at strække sig til, lidt afhængig af hvilken land, den 6., 8. eller 12. januar. Læs eks. Johan Krohns Peters Jul, her står det jo

Se, nu er da Julen strax forbi;
det er Helligtrekongers Aften.

Og helligtrekongersdag er den 6. januar, Helligtrekongers aften er aftenen forinden. Så julen er altså ikke fra 1. december til den 24., men fra den 25. til 5. januar, nu er de fleste af jo os jo begyndt på arbejde inden den 6. så med hverdangens komme slutter julen jo ofte for de fleste af os.

Jeg har altid synes at når julen sluttede med den 24. plus/minus et par julefrokostdage, så var det ikke helt godt. Og efter at haft børn i et par år, synes jeg mindre og mindre om det med at pakke gaver op den 24. om aftenen. For det første så bliver måltidet altid lidt noget der for de mindste bare skal overstås. Og selvom man starter nogenlunde fornuftigt så ender det med måltid, juletræ dans og sang, at det med gaverne først påbegyndes tidligst omkring kl. 20. Når man så skal have pakket op, så ender børnene med at være så udmattede, at de praktisk talt ikke kan nå at lege med det. Vælger man i stedet den Angelsaksiske tradition og først får gaverne den 25. om morgenen, så vil det betyde at der var tid til at nyde maden aftenen forinden, og nyde gaverne den næste morgen. Man får nok ikke nogen børn til at stemme for at skubbe gavetiden til næste morgen, men jeg overvejer det kraftigt til næste år.

Intet indhold

Der er så meget i denne verden der uden egentlig indhold. Der er mad uden indhold, der er tv uden indhold, aviser og bøger uden indhold og der er liv uden indhold. Jeg kræver ikke at alt er “Pi’s liv” og fuldkornsrugbrød, men der må gerne være mere end den indholdstomme flodbølge der rammer os dagligt og som har gjort mig afhængig. På opfordring af en bekendt har jeg valgt at pause mit “avis”læsning, grunden til ciationstegnene er at jeg ikke har købt en egentlig avis i 2 år, men udelukkende læser det på nettet. For desværre er der meget langt mellem de artikler eller indlæg i den danske presse, der oprigtigt efterlader mig, med mere viden eller endsige bare mere nysgerrighed om et emne. Alligevel har jeg søgt tilbage, til facebook, til twitter, til de lette og ukomplicerede sensationer på bt og eb, der ofte hverken var breaking eller news, men blot professionelt indpakket ingenting. Og havde jeg endeligt valgt at købe mig til en artikel til for 5, 10 eller 19 kr. på berlingske eller politiken så var det sjældent pengene værd. Bevares, noget tyder på at man for disse penge, i det mindste får stavekontrol, korrekte sammensatte substantiver og et sprogligt niveau over “Puk har dyr”, men sjældent egentlig indhold med dybde og refleksion. Samtidig fyldes den skrevne flade nu mere og mere ud af genfortællinger og intetsigende information om intetsigende tv udsendelser med ligegyldige mennesker. Så jeg kæmper nu i mod mig selv om min afhængighed. Til at starte på er det med en kold tyrker, så lad mig se om jeg finder tilbage til der hvor der er substans og indhold, og om det giver mig en større tilfredsstillelse og intellektuel mæthed. Først da tør jeg snacke lidt igen af ingentings tomme kalorier.

PS. Jeg afskriver ikke TV, film eller noget lign. men luger bare det allerværste ukrudt ud.